The Invisible Image: The Tomb of the Diver on the fiftieth anniversary of its discovery (Exhibition)

 

In 2018, we were fortunate to visit Paestum, in southern Italy, while this exhibition was on. 

The Tomb of the Diver dates back to 470 BCE, when this was part of Magna Graecia, so it is an Ancient Greek creation. The most famous image was found on the underside of the top slab of the tomb. It seemingly depicts as young man diving from a wall or tower into waves. 

The tomb of the diver is on permanent display at the museum; this exhibition told the story of 300 years of archaeological exploration into the mystery of the meaning of this particular depiction - a meaning which remains a mystery. 

It also included the display of ancient and modern works, "designed to illustrate the scientific, cultural, artistic and ideological knowledge which has ensured that, fifty years after the discovery of the tomb, the question of its meaning still remains wide open." 

Attic black-figure amphora attributed to the Priam painter 530-500BCE Side A - female bathers. National Archaeological Museum, Villa Giulia, Rome Source: Wikimedia

Nino Migliori The Diver, 1951. Photographic print, made 17 years before the discovery of the Tomb of The Diver

 

Ancient Assyria

Assyrians

Cecil Colwin writes in  Breakthrough Swimming (Human Kinetics, 2002 (available on Google Books as per link) : 

"In the ancient world, diverting rivers to protect city-states led to swimming for military purposes. Bas-reliefs housed in the British museum show a river-crossing by Assurnasir-pal, King of Assyria, and his army. When these reliefs were found in the ruins of the royal palace at Nimroud, students of swimming techniques were excited because here, at last, they expected to find evidence of swimming skills used in ancient times. Nineteenth-century observers thought the reliefs showed soldiers swimming either sidestroke or the trudgeon stroke, while 20th-century observers concluded that the Assyrians were actually swimming the crawl stroke! And so, as always, conclusions are drawn from one’s own vantage point. 

Above: Bas Relief of Assyrian army crossing river, from the British Museum.

Great Bath of Mohenjo-Daro, Indus Valley

 

Photo credit: Copyright J.M. Kenoyer/Harappa.com; Courtesy Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Pakistan from https://www.britannica.com/place/Mohenjo-daro

Mohenjo-Daro is located in Sindh province, in modern day Pakistan. It means "Mound of the Dead Men". It was built around 2500 BCE, contemporaneous with the Ancient Egyptian, Mespopotamian and Minoan Crete civilisations.  It was abandoned in the19th century BCE as the Indus Valley Civilizsation declined, and the site was not rediscovered until the 1920s.

From Stokes of Genius: A History of Swimming, by Eric Chaline (Reaktion Books, 2017):

" The world's oldest purpose-built, in-ground, enclosed swimming pool is the 'Great Bath' of Mohenjo-daro (2,500 - 1.800 BCE), one of the largest cities of the Indus Valley Cizilization (IVC). The pool, which was part of a larger complex, measures 12 x 7 m (29 x 23 ft) and 2.4m (8 ft) at its deepest. The superbly crafted structure made from close-fitting bricks held together with gypsum plaster, was coated with a layer of natural tar to make it completely water-tight. Bathers entered the water via two wide staircases at either end. Although the pool is just about long enough to do lengths, and deep enough to accommodate springboard diving, water polo and synchronized swimming, it is unlikely that it was ever used by the matrons of the city for lenghts of 'old-lady breaststroke' or for any other kind of recreational swimming activity. Based on later Indian religious practice, one theory holds that the complex that housed the pool was a college for the city's priesthood and that the Great Bath was reserved for their purification.

"....we know little of the daily lives, social and political organization, customs and beliefs of the residents of IVC cities...and much of what archaeologists think they know, such as how they imagine the Great Bath was used, is inferred from later Hindu practice. Because the pool was part of an important complex in the centre of the city, it is presumed that it was used by its elite - most likely its priestly class. 

"....the one thing that strikes me about the pool, as a swimmer, apart from its rather modest length (as such it is not unlike many small hotel pools), is that it is quite deep. Whoever used it would have needed to have some competence in the water." 

Swimming in Ancient Rome: Caracalla and Pompeii

"Swimming was one of the favourite activities of Roman boys, and it was widely practiced in the Tiber River, next to the Campus Martius. Most Roman baths were also equipped with plunge pools, in which swimming was enjoyed. There are some accounts of women who knew how to swim in ancient times." (this website)

Julius Caesar was famous for his swimming ability.

Swimming was part of boys' education, and the Romans built the first swimming pools separate from bathing pools. 

"The first heated swimming pool was built by Gaius Maecenas of Rome in the 1st century BC. 

The Baths of Caracalla and other baths built by the Romans were enormous, but the swimming tanks set aside for actual swimming were usually very small, although the natatio - the open air swimming pool rather than the bathing pools - measured 50 x 22 metres (source: Wikipedia). The walls rose to more than 20 metres and the northern facade was structured by three huge columns made from grey granite. Between these columns were niches on several levels for housing ornamental statues. It was roofless, with bronze mirrors mountes overhead to direct sunlight into the pool area. The entire bath area was on a raised platform 6 metres high, to allow for storage and furnaces under the building. 

 Read more here. 

Below: The Baths of Caracalla (multimedia reconstruction and aerial plan)

Piero and me at the Baths of Caracalla in January 1984. In the summer of 1992 we went to see a performance of Aida there.

According to Wikipedia, Caracalla was built between 212 and 216 AD under the reign of Emperor Caracalla. They also incorporated a library with two separate and equal sized rooms: one housing Greek langauge texts, and the other Latin language texts.

 They were the inspiration for the design of Pennsylvania Station in New York City.

Ancient Pompei - the Stabian Baths

For detailed information about these baths, click here.

There was a pool measuring 13m x 8m and 1.5 m deep. On either side were shallow basins where athletes could wash prior to entering the pool.

Cicero complained that he needed a wider pool to avoid hurting his hands against the wall.

The Palaestra (a series of small rooms containing baths), with a swimming pool in the middle:

Own photo taken on visit 30 May 2008

Photo taken 30 May 2008

The plan of the baths above is from this website. "V" represents the pool, "S" the Palaestra. 
Other features of the complex: 
A: main entrance on Via Abbondanza
B: secondary entrance off Via Stabiana
C: ?
D and E: original entry to women's baths (no access to palaestra)
F: an entrance
G: an entrance
H: an entrance
I to N: Men's baths
I: small annexe of apodyterium
J: Vestibule to men's baths
K: Changing room (apodyterium)
L: Tepidarium (warm room)
M: Caldarium (hot room)
N: Frigidarium (cold room)
O: ?
P: Tepidarium women's baths
Q: Caldarium women's baths
R: ambulatory goving entrance to women's baths
T: dressing room for the pool complex
U and W: wash rooms for swimmers
X: Locker room for players of a game resembling ninepins
Y: Latrines
Z: Individual bathing rooms

Swimming from Ancient Rome to Christianity

Sculpture of a mermaid found at a Roman fort near Fors Abbey at Bainbridge in Yorkshire, England.

One of my favourite books about swimming is Haunts of the Black Masseur : the Swimmer as Hero, by Charles Sprawson. I love his chapter on 'Classical Waters' (in Ancient Greece and Rome).

Sprawson tells us that in ancient Rome swimming was associated with sensuality and, eventually, as Emperors built ever more luxurious pools and baths, decadence. The Christian church filled the sea with imaginary monsters.

For Pliny the mermaid was a exciting proof of nature's diversity, her song an irresistible celestial harmony.

For the medieval church her siren song became the lure of fleshly pleasures to be feared and avoided by the godly. Swimming, like sexual pleasure, came to be associated with the devil and was almost suppressed during the domination of Europe by Christianity. Not until the beginning of the 19th century was its popularity revived.

The Cave of the Swimmers, Egypt

Wikipedia says: "It was discovered in October 1933 by the Hungarian explorer László Almásy. It contains rock painting images of people swimming estimated to have been created 10,000 years ago during the time of the Ice Ages. Almásy devoted a chapter to the cave in his 1934 book The Unknown Sahara. In it he postulates that the swimming scenes are real depictions of life at the time of painting and that there had been a change in climate since that time. This theory was so new at that time that his first editor added several footnotes, to make it clear that he did not share this opinion. The cave is mentioned in the book The English Patient and the film based upon it. The cave shown in the film is not the original but a film set created by a modern artist." 

 More from: http://www.showcaves.com/english/misc/caves/Swimmers.html "Is it just fiction or a real cave? The Cave of Swimmers has a central place in the movie The English Patient. A cave where prehistoric paintings show swimming people in the middle of the desert. This seems impossible, but there is an easy explanation: this area wasn't a desert some 10,000 years ago during the Ice Ages. To say it clear: the cave in the film is not the real cave, it is just a film set. The area around the cave is a location in Tunisia, near Degache. The cave interior was painted by an Italian woman painter. She painted the cave, and she is shown painting in the title sequence of the movie. 

 "The real Cave of Swimmers lies in southwest Egypt, at the border to Lybia. It was explored by the real László Almásy: who wrote a book about his discoveries. He also wrote a whole chapter about his archaeological findings, which unfortunately was left out in several editions. He mentions the theory, that there the motives of the drawings were real live scenes of daily life at this place. He explained this with a dramatic change in climate since then. This theory was so new, that his first editor added several footnotes, to make clear that he did not share this opinion. 

"As far as I know, Almásy's book is only available in Hungarian and German. The discovery of the prehistoric rock painting sites in the Uweinat mountains, was the most important result of the 1933 Almásy expedition. This expedition explored the Uweinat and Gilf Kebir region: Ain Dua, Karkur Talh, and Wadi Sora. Despite he was adviced and promised not to cross the border to Sudan, he did so and discovered several rock paintings in oases over there. Gilf Kebir is a large mountain ridge, which extends over three countries, Egypt, Lybia and Sudan. The mountains consist of sandstones and crystalline rocks, like granite. Sandstone layers are porous which makes them good water reservoirs. They collect rain water and, at low points around the mountains, there are several springs which make small oases. Typically the rocks around the springs get eroded by the water, so each spring forms a sort of cliff or cavern. Most of the erosion happened long ago, when the area had much more rain and the production of the springs was much bigger. The caverns around the spring were used for shelter by stone age man, and of course they were important, maybe holy places. So they used paint to draw scenes of their daily live on the walls of the shelters. Flint stone tools can also be found, but as far as I know, no scientific excavation was made by now. This kind of caves was found all around Gilf Kebir, most of them at the south western corner in Lybia. The cave of swimmers has a different geology. It is located in granite, so it is not the place of a spring. But it is located at the bottom of a wadi, a valley which once contained a river. So it is a cave formed by the flowing water at the undercut slope. It is easy to understand, why peolpe would draw swimming people, while sitting at the banks of a river. A last piece in the puzzle is the question how the paintings remained in the extreme climate of the desert. It seems, the natural pigments of the colours can resist temperatur changes very good. Paintings on certain rocks, where the surface is eroded by temperature changes, are lost forever. But granite is rather resistant. And the last problem is light, especially ultraviolett light, which destroys many colours (bleaching). Almásy: descries the absence of pintings in the part of the cave, which is reached by sunlight. It seems that direct sunlight destroyed the paintings at this place. To make one point clear: it is not easy to visit the real cave of swimmers. The geographic and political difficulties make it difficult for the regular tourist. But some tour operators from Egypt organize desert expeditions which include a visit of the cave. You should organize and book such a tour in advance, as you will not find it on the regular day trip schedule in your Hotel..." Lots of pics here.

Update (22 Nov 2021): 

Howard Means, in his book Splash1 10,000 Years of Swimming (Allen and Unwin, London, 2021) writes about the cave in the prologue to his book - 'Once Upon a Time in Egypt. 

Swimming in Ancient Egypt

Source: Eszter Stricker

There are references all over the Internet to swimming in Egypt. Most of them use the same words, for which I have provided Reference links. Many also use the image shown at top, which I can't find anywhere, but appears to be a stylised hieroglyph (see Eszter Stickler's article below). Some also use as evidence of female swimming the images of  Egyptian cosmetic spoon like those below from 1300-1400 BCE. 

Some of the oft-repeated quotes:

"Swimming was the favourite sport of the ancient Egyptians as far back as 2500 BCE. They made use of the River Nile to practice it. The Nile was not the only place for swimming contests. Noblemen's palaces had swimming pools in which princes learned the sport. The calm waters of the Nile encouraged youths to hold swimming competitions in which they could show their skills." (Reference) 

"Egyptians were very good swimmers, and they loved to do it. One hieroglyph shows a man swimming; this and other drawings make it look quite likely that ancient Egyptians could swim a style resembling the modern front crawl. Royal and noble children often took swimming lessons, as mentioned in a biographical inscription of a Middle Kingdom nobleman." (Reference)

Wikipedia mentions "An Egyptian clay seal dated between 9000 BC and 4000 BC shows four people who are believed to be swimming a variant of the front crawl." I searched and couldn't find any other reference to this seal, or a depiction. 

One historian, Eszter Stricker has a page entitled 'Did They Really Swim In the Nile?'  in which she evaluates evidence around swimming in the Nile, and women swimming. She concludes that it is unlikely that they swam in the Nile (crocodiles, hippos), but Egyptians of the upper classes certainly did swim and had swimming lessons. There is a lot of evidence that the rich had private pools in their gardens. 

Stricker concludes: 

• there are almost no written texts about people going for a swim, especially not in the Nile;
• the illustrations we have show slave women with a strong erotic message (swimming underwater with lotus flowers);
• people were afraid to enter the Nile because it was filled with dangerous animals;
• to die in the Nile would make it impossible to get a proper burial which was one of the life goals of the Egyptians;
• Swimming courses were part of royal education and it was a huge privilege to attend one;
• the richest could afford to have a private pool in their garden.

Read Stricker's piece and ponder the swimming life of the Ancient Egyptians. 

Source of illustration: Wikipedia.

See also my blog on The Cave of The Swimmers

Art: Ancient Egypt

Antiquité égyptienne du musée du Louvre. Cuiller à fard : jeune fille nageant. Bois, Ivoire

Egyptian antiquity in the Louvre Museum. Make-up spoon: young girl swimming. Wood & ivory